Intelligent e-book reader incorporating augmented reality or virtual reality

ABSTRACT

Embodiments disclosed herein describe intelligent e-book readers which provide a significant improvement over the conventional e-books that simply render static content. The intelligent e-book readers may customize a rendered e-book based on, for example, the reading level and preferences of the user, the user&#39;s social media profile and activity, and current events. Furthermore, the intelligent e-book reader may provide additional augmented reality (AR)/virtual reality (VR) content associated with one or more portions of the rendered e-book. The intelligent e-book reader may also facilitate virtual, real time communication between multiple users and experts. The intelligent e-book reader may also facilitate one or more users to provide feedback and suggestions to authors and future movie-makers. The intelligent e-book reader may automatically determine difficult portions of an e-book based on the virtual communications and/or real time eye-tracking of a user.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/032,320, filed Jul. 11, 2018, which claims priority to U.S.Provisional Application No. 62/530,914 filed on filed on Jul. 11, 2017,both of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

This application is also related to U.S. Non-Provisional applicationSer. No. 15/976,777, filed May 10, 2018, which is incorporated byreference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This application relates generally to an intelligent e-book reader.

BACKGROUND

Present day e-book readers provide a very limited functionality from auser's standpoint. To put differently, conventional e-book readers aremerely renderer of simple content, such as books and magazines. Thefunctionality provided by a conventional e-book reader is confined toallowing a user to scroll through the rendered text, to flip through therendered pages, change the size of the text, to look up dictionarymeanings of words of the rendered text, add a bookmark, and highlight orflag various portions of the rendered text. In other words, a user mayinteract with a conventional e-book reader to just change the look andfeel of the content, and the conventional e-book reader fails to tailorthe render content based on the user profile. Furthermore, theconventional e-book reader fails to provide additional enhanced contentassociated with the rendered text. Similarly, there is no integration ofsocial media and community discussion functionality in the conventionale-book reader.

What is therefore desired is an intelligent e-book that providesadditional functionality and enhanced content associated with therendered e-book.

SUMMARY

The systems and methods disclosed herein are intended to address theshortcomings in the art mentioned above, and provide additional oralternative benefits as well. More specifically, embodiments disclosedherein describe intelligent e-book readers which provide a significantimprovement over the conventional e-books that simply render staticcontent. The intelligent e-book readers may customize a rendered e-bookbased on, for example, the reading level and preferences of the user,the user's social media profile and activity, and current events.Furthermore, the intelligent e-book reader may provide additionalaugmented reality (AR)/virtual reality (VR) content associated with oneor more portions of the rendered e-book. The intelligent e-book readermay also facilitate virtual, real time communication between multipleusers and experts. The intelligent e-book reader may also facilitate oneor more users to provide feedback and suggestions to authors and futuremovie-makers. The intelligent e-book reader may automatically determinedifficult portions of an e-book based on the virtual communicationsand/or real time eye-tracking of a user.

In an embodiment, a computer implemented method comprises receiving, bya computer system from a user device, a request for an e-book, whereinthe request includes an e-book identifier and a user identifier;retrieving, by the computer system from a database, an e-book file basedon the e-book identifier, wherein the e-book file includes standarde-book content; retrieving, by the computer system from the database, auser profile based on the user identifier, wherein the user profileincludes data records containing information on the reading level andpreferences of the user identified by the user identifier; retrieving,by the computer system from the database, a first set of one or moremodifying files based on the reading level and preferences of the user,wherein the one or more modifying files include database recordsincluding modifying information for modifying one or more sections ofthe e-book file; generating, by the computer, a modified e-book file byapplying modifying information from the one or more modifying files tothe e-book file; transmitting, by the computer to the user device, themodified e-book file such that the user device can render the content ofthe modified e-book file on a user interface of the user device;receiving, by the computer from the user device, a request to update therendered content wherein the request to modify includes a second readinglevel indicated by the user; retrieving, by the computer from thedatabase, a second set of one or more modifying files based on thereceived second reading level; generating, by the computer, a secondmodified e-book file based upon the modified e-book file and the secondset of one or more modified files; and transmitting, by the computer tothe user device, the second modified e-book file such that the userdevice renders the content of the second modified e-book file on theuser interface.

In another embodiment, a computer implemented method comprises:receiving, by a computer system, a request from a user to render acustomized e-book on an e-book reader; retrieving, by the computersystem, one or more customizable e-book files from an e-book database;retrieving, by the computer system, authentication information of theuser for one or more social media sites from a user database; querying,by the computer system, the one or more social media using therespective application programming interface to retrieve one or morepieces of information associated with the user; receiving, by thecomputer system, one or more pieces of information associated with theuser; executing, by the computer system, an analytics engine toaggregate the one or more pieces of information with the user;executing, by the computer system, a modification algorithm on the oneor more customizable e-book files and the aggregated pieces ofinformation about the user to generate a customized e-book; andrendering, by the computer system, the customized e-book on the e-bookreader.

In another embodiment, a computer implemented method comprises:rendering, by a computer system, an e-book on a user device; receiving,by the computer system from a user, a request for an additionalinformation for a portion of the rendered e-book; upon determining bythe computer system that the request is a peer to peer chat request:rendering, by the computer system, a chat window on the user deviceoverlaid on the rendered e-book; rendering, by the computer system, oneor more chat windows on one or more other user devices rendering thee-book; upon determining by the computer system that the request is achatbot request: rendering, by the computer system, a chat window on theuser device overlaid on the rendered e-book; executing, by the computersystem, a chatbot program to chat with the user; and upon determining bythe computer system the request is expert chat request; rendering, bythe computer system, a chat window on the user device overlaid on therendered e-book; rendering, by the computer system, one or more chatwindows, one or more chat windows on one or more other user devicesassociated with one or more experts.

In another embodiment, a computer implemented method comprisesretrieving, by a computer, an e-book file containing an e-book contentand displaying the e-book content on a graphical user interface of thecomputer; continuously tracking, by the computer through an augmentedreality (AR) headset, head movement of a user while reading the e-bookcontent; upon receiving an indication by the computer that the ARheadset has captured a head gesture indicating that the user wantsadditional AR content associated with the displayed e-book content:identifying, by the computer, a portion of the displayed e-book contentthat the user is currently reading; querying, by the computer, anadditional content database to retrieve additional AR content associatedwith the portion of the displayed e-book content; and transmitting, bythe computer, the retrieved additional AR content to be displayed on ascreen of the AR headset.

In another embodiment, a system comprises a non-transitory storagemedium configured to store a plurality of e-book files and an additionalcontent database; a processor connected to the non-transitory storagemedium and configured to: retrieve from the non-transitory medium, ane-book file containing an e-book content and display the e-book contenton a graphical user interface; continuously track computer through anaugmented reality (AR) headset, head movement of a user while readingthe e-book content; upon receiving an indication by the processor thatthe AR headset has captured a head gesture indicating that the userwants additional AR content associated with the displayed e-bookcontent: identify a portion of the displayed e-book content that theuser is currently reading; query the additional content database toretrieve additional AR content associated with the portion of thedisplayed e-book content; and transmit the retrieved additional ARcontent to be displayed on a screen of the AR headset.

In another embodiment, a computer readable non-transitory mediumcontains one or more computer instructions, which when executed by aprocessor cause the processor to: retrieve an e-book file containing ane-book content and display the e-book content on a graphical userinterface; continuously track computer through an augmented reality (AR)headset, head movement of a user while reading the e-book content; uponreceiving an indication by the processor that the AR headset hascaptured a head gesture indicating that the user wants additional ARcontent associated with the displayed e-book content: identify a portionof the displayed e-book content that the user is currently reading;query an additional content database to retrieve additional AR contentassociated with the portion of the displayed e-book content; andtransmit the retrieved additional AR content to be displayed on a screenof the AR headset.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings constitute a part of this specification andillustrate embodiments of the subject matter disclosed herein.

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary system, according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 2 shows an exemplary e-book reader, according to an exemplaryembodiment.

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary method of rendering a customized e-book on auser device, according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary method of tagging a difficult portion of arendered e-book, according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 5 shows an exemplary method of rendering additional augmentedreality (AR)/virtual reality (VR) content in association with an e-book,according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 6 shows an exemplary method of implementing a virtual book club inassociation with an e-book, according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 7 shows an exemplary method of assigning one or more expertiselevels, according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 8 shows an exemplary method of rendering a customized e-book on auser device, according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 9 shows an exemplary method of allowing a user to provide feedbackon an e-book, according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 10 shows an exemplary method of rendering a customized e-book on auser device, according to an exemplary embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Reference will now be made to the illustrative embodiments illustratedin the drawings, and specific language will be used here to describe thesame. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scopeof the claims or this disclosure is thereby intended. Alterations andfurther modifications of the inventive features illustrated herein, andadditional applications of the principles of the subject matterillustrated herein, which would occur to one skilled in the relevant artand having possession of this disclosure, are to be considered withinthe scope of the subject matter disclosed herein. Other embodiments maybe used and/or other changes may be made without departing from thespirit or scope of the present disclosure. The illustrative embodimentsdescribed in the detailed description are not meant to be limiting ofthe subject matter presented.

Embodiments disclosed herein describe an intelligent e-book reader(alternatively intelligent e-reader) that breaks the traditional e-bookparadigm of rendering a static content and allowing a user a limitedinteraction with the static content. In other words, the intelligente-book reader integrates interactive functionality and providesadditional enhanced content associated with the rendered e-book. Onehaving ordinary skill in the art understands that the intelligent e-bookreader may not simply refer to a handheld e-reader, but includes serverside computing systems, client side computing systems that may include ahandheld e-reader, and one or more networks interconnecting the serverside computing systems and client side computing systems. One havingordinary skill in the art further understands that the variousfunctionalities in the embodiments disclosed herein can be implementedin the server side computing systems, client side computing systems, ora combination of both.

In an embodiment, the intelligent e-book reader renders an e-book or anyother additional content based on the user profile of the userassociated with the intelligent reader. For example, the intelligente-book reader may maintain a user profile database containing a userprofile of a user associated with the intelligent e-book reader. Theuser profile may contain database records indicating the reading leveland preferences of the user. The intelligent e-book reader may furthermaintain an e-book database containing a plurality of e-books. When theuser inputs a request to render an e-book, the intelligent e-book readermay query the user profile database to retrieve the user profilecontaining the reading level and the preferences of the user. Theintelligent e-book reader may then query the e-book database to retrievethe e-book customized according to the reading level and preferences ofthe user. For example, the e-book for juvenile readers may includesimpler words and simpler sentence structures, whereas the e-book for aspecialist may include complex text and ideas. In addition, theintelligent e-book may “grow” with the user—the intelligent e-bookreader may continuously aggregate the data of the reading level of theuser, and automatically update the reading level of the user, andretrieve and render e-books books based upon the updated the readinglevel. In other words, the intelligent e-book reader may render e-bookswith increasing complexity and sophistication as the user reading andcomprehension skills improve.

In an embodiment, the intelligent e-book reader may incorporate socialmedia functionality, using which a user may talk to an expert, do achat, or get additional information. For example, a user may instructthe intelligent e-book reader to open a chat window overlaid on aportion of an e-book. In the chat window, the user may type a questionregarding the portion of the e-book. The intelligent e-book reader maytransmit the question to other readers who are reading or have read thee-book. For example, the intelligent e-book reader may open a group chatsession, wherein the user can get assistance understanding the portionin real time from other readers/users. Some of the other users may belabeled as experts, and the user may directly ask a question about adifficult portion of the e-book to the experts. In addition or in thealternate, the e-book may be associated with a chatbot, and the chatbotmay automatically answer the question posed by the user without anyhuman intervention. These features may especially useful for studentsreading textbooks using the intelligent e-book reader. For example, aprofessor may assign a portion of a textbook, and chances are thestudents may be reading the portion of the text in the same time frame.Whenever a student has a question, the student may open a chat windowoverlaid on the portion and the intelligent e-book reader may open thechat window, based on the personal settings, in the respective devicesof other students. The intelligent e-book reader may then facilitate adiscussion about the portion of the textbook using the chat window. Theintelligent e-book reader may also flag a portion, based on thefrequency and the content of the chat, of the textbook and automaticallytransmit a message to the assigning professor that students found theportion particularly difficult. The professor may then address thedifficult portion in a later class.

In an embodiment, the intelligent e-book reader may use the eye trackingto determine difficult portions of a rendered e-book. For example, theintelligent e-book reader may activate one or more camera modules in theuser device to track the eye movement of the user through technologiessuch as image processing and/or infrared reflection tracking. Based onthe eye tracking, the intelligent e-book reader may determine theportions (words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs) that the user reads andrereads. Based upon the amount of rereads the intelligent e-book readermay determine that such portions of the e-book may be difficult for theuser or any other user. Once the intelligent e-book reader determinesthat a particular portion of the e-book is difficult, the intelligente-book reader may tag the difficult portions using features such asflags and highlights. The tags may allow an expert to input explanationsassociated with the difficult portions to aid the future readers.Furthermore, the tags may allow future readers to anticipate thedifficulty and read the difficult portions with more attention comparedto the other portions. In a classroom setting, the tag may help ateacher/professor to prepare for a lecture addressing tagged portion ofthe e-book.

In an embodiment, the intelligent e-book reader may provide purchaseoptions associated with the e-book to the user. For example, the portionof the e-book may describe and detail a consumer good that the user maywant to purchase. A main character in the e-book may, for example, weara particular brand of shoes and a particular brand of eyeglasses. As theuser is reading the portion (the page or paragraph) of the e-book thatdescribes the items, the intelligent e-book reader may render a windowoverlaid on the portion of the e-book with a link to purchase suchitems. The intelligent e-book reader may provide a seamless purchaseprocess that the user does not have to leave the e-book but may simplyclick the link, and the intelligent e-book reader may automaticallycommunicate with the vendor and the user's bank in the background toautomatically order the item for the user.

In an embodiment, the intelligent e-book reader may allow the user toprovide a feedback to an author. As the user reads the e-book, the usermay indicate to the intelligent e-book reader that the user wants toprovide a feedback by engaging one or more input mechanisms, such as anon-screen icon or a physical button, provided by the intelligent e-bookreader. In response to the aforementioned user indication, theintelligent e-book reader may overlay a feedback window or may provideany other mode of input for the user to provide a feedback about theportion of the book. The feedback may include, for example, the user'ssuggestion to the author about potential changes to the story or thetext in the e-book. As another example, the feedback may include theuser's suggestions for a sequel or a prequel of the story being told inthe e-book. As yet another example, the feedback may include suggestionsbased on current events or current fan fiction associated with thee-book.

In an embodiment, the intelligent e-book reader may integrate anincentive process for the users to provide answers to questions posed byother users. For example, the intelligent e-book may execute a rewardengine that that may provide reward points to a user based on the user'sinvolvement in helping other users. A user may answer questions posed ina chat-room or a community forum or write explanations to difficultportions of the e-book. Based on the quantity and the quality of theseanswers, the intelligent e-book reader may provide reward points. Otherusers may rank and rate the answers or additional material provided; andthe intelligent e-book reader may provide rewards based upon theseratings and rankings. In addition to the rewards and points, theintelligent e-book reader may also provide badges to the users providinganswers and/or additional material. For example, a user may receive an“expert” badge such that other users may take the badge as a symbol ofcredibility.

In an embodiment, the intelligent e-book reader may integrate the socialmedia account of a user with a rendered e-book. For example, theintelligent e-book reader may use an application programming interface(API) of the user's one or more social media accounts to retrieve andaggregate various social media information about the user. The varioussocial media information may include, for example, the user'sprofession, the names of the user's closest friends and relatives, theuser's hobbies, or the user's favorite items. When rendering a requestede-book, the intelligent e-book reader may populate various portion ofthe requested e-book with the aggregated social media information of theuser. For example, the main character may be named after the user andthe main character may share the same hobbies as the user.

In an embodiment, the intelligent e-book reader may integrate thefunctionality of an augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) in areading environment. The user may read an e-book rendered a handhelddevice while having an AR/VR headset on. In some instances, the user maybe reading a physical paper book. One having ordinary skill in the artunderstands that a pass-through camera may allow a user to read thee-book on a handheld device or a physical book while the user may haveAR/VR headset on. In other instances, the e-book may be rendered on theAR/VR headset itself and the user may interact with the e-book on theheadset itself such as flipping the virtual pages within the AR/VRheadset. Regardless of where the e-book is rendered or whether thereader is looking at an e-book or a physical book, the user may indicatethat the user seeks additional content on the portion of the book theuser is reading. For example, while reading an e-book on a handhelddevice, the user may look up and look towards a wall. The intelligente-book reader may continuously track the user's head movement and/eyemovement to determine that that the user seeks additional content basedupon the head movement and/or eye movement of the user. For example, thelooking up towards the wall may indicate the intelligent e-book readerthat the user is seeking additional content. In some instances, the usermay press a physical button on the handheld device or the AR/VR headsetto indicate that the user seeks additional content. Upon receiving theindication from the user, the intelligent e-book reader may query anadditional content database, which may be within the e-book database, toretrieve the additional content associated with the portion of thee-book (or the physical book) that the user is reading. The intelligente-book reader may render the additional content on the AR/VR headset. Asan example, if the user is reading a book about a war, the additionalcontent may include a battle map, pictures of the soldiers and theofficers, pictures of the weapons used, and/or newsreel footage of thewar. Therefore, as the user is reading an e-book, the user may look upand the intelligent e-book reader may provide additional AR/VR contentassociated with the portion of the e-book the user is reading.

In an embodiment, the intelligent e-book reader may facilitate the userto provide suggestions for a movie based on the e-book. The user mayindicate to the intelligent e-book reader, through an on-screen gestureor by pressing a physical button, that the user wants to provide asuggestion for a movie based on the e-book being rendered. Theintelligent e-book reader may then render a window overlaid on thee-book or any other input mechanism such that the user can input thesuggestions. The suggestions may include, a particular street to shoot aparticular scene, a suggestion about a town to shoot the movie on,suggested actors, or suggested directors. The intelligent e-book readermay aggregate suggestions from various users and may generate a reportto be potentially used by the movie producers. In other words, thereport may inform the movie producers as to how the public wants thebook to be visualized in the movie.

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary system 100, according to an exemplaryembodiment. The system 100 may comprise one or more servers 101, one ormore databases 102, a communication medium 103, and one or more userdevices 104. The one or more user devices 104 may comprise an e-bookreader or a device having an e-book application installed thereon. Onehaving ordinary skill in the art appreciates that the system 100 is notconfined to the components described herein and may comprise additionalor alternate components, which are to be considered within the scope ofthe exemplary embodiment. Furthermore, functionality attributed to acomponent of the exemplary system 100 may be fully or partially executedby other components of the system 100.

The servers 101 of the exemplary system 100 may execute various softwaremodules that instruct the servers 101 on performing one or moreprocesses for receiving data from various devices, storing the receiveddata in the databases 102, retrieving data stored in databases 102, andperforming various operations on the retrieved data. A server 101 may beany computing device comprising non-transitory machine-readable storagemedia and a processor capable of executing the various processes andtasks described herein. Non-limiting examples of a server 101 mayinclude a server computer, a desktop, a laptop, a tablet, or the like.In some cases, the server 101 may be coupled to the databases 102 of thesystem 100, and, in some cases, the server 101 may host the one or moredatabases 102.

In some embodiments, a server 101 may host an application server orwebserver, either of which may include software modules allowing theuser devices 104 to access and/or manipulate data in a database 102 orin the server 101. For example, the server 101 may comprise a webserverallowing the user devices 104 to access data that is collected andmanipulated by the server 101. In this example, a subscriber to thesystem 100, who may be operating a user device 104 a, may point a webbrowser application executed by the user device 104 a to a websitehosted on the webserver in order to access the data stored in thedatabase 102 and results generated by the server 101. In another examplein which the server 102 comprises a web-accessible application server, auser device 104 c may be a mobile device (e.g., a dedicated e-bookreader, tablet, laptop, smart phone) executing a software applicationconfigured to access the system 100.

The databases 102 may store various e-books that can be accessed fromthe user devices 104 and user profiles of a plurality of users using thesystem. The database 102 may store the e-books in various formats, suchas plaintext, a Portable Document Format (PDF), Hypertext MarkupLanguage (HTML), Extensible Markup Language (XML), Microsoft Word(MS-Word), International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 62448standard, Information Presentation Facility (IPF), Kindle File Format,Mobipocket, Rich Text Format (RTF), Open XML Paper Specification(OpenXPS), and/or any type of text displaying or processing/formatstandard that are compatible with the user devices 104. In addition tothe text of the e-books, the database 102 a may also store one or moremultimedia files related to the text of the e-books. The database 102 amay store reading level based e-book files such that the system 100 mayrender an e-book based on a user's reading level and preferences. Insome embodiments, the database 102 a may store an e-book file containinga text at a standard reading level; and may store one or filescontaining modifications to the e-book file text based on the readinglevel and preferences of the users. For example, a standard text for ane-book may contain a text containing highly technical information andthe e-book file may contain the standard text containing the highlytechnical information. The database 102 a may store, for example, twofiles for the e-book based on lower reading levels. The database 102 amay store a first file containing modifications to the standard text tosupport a user at a first reading level. For example, the first file maycontain replacement for jargons and/or technical words. Furthermore, thefirst file may contain simple explanations of mathematical expressionsin the standard text. A second file may contain modifications to thefirst file or the standard text. Using the second file, the system 100may support a user at a lower second reading level compared to the firstreading level. In the embodiments where the second file containsmodifications to the first file, the second file may contain the textsimplifying information in the first file. The second file may include,for example, simpler words and shorter sentences compared to the firstfile. In some embodiments, the database 102 a may contain separate filesbased on the reading levels and preferences, as opposed to containing astandard text and one or more files containing modifications thereto. Inthese embodiments, the server 101 may retrieve the appropriate filebased on a user's reading level and preferences.

The database 102 a may store a thesaurus file and the server 101 may usethe thesaurus file for modifying a standard text e-book file. Forexample, the thesaurus file may have synonyms categorized according toreading levels. After the server 101 identifies and/or determines areading level and preferences of a user, the server 101 may access thethesaurus file and the standard e-book file and replace a plurality ofcomplex words in the standard e-book file with the synonyms at theappropriate reading level from the thesaurus file. One having ordinaryskill in the art understands that using a thesaurus file is merelyexemplary, and the system 100 may use any other algorithm to tailor thee-book based on a user's reading level and preferences.

The database 102 a may further include additional content associatedwith the e-books stored therein. In some embodiments, the additionalcontent may include augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR)contents stored in association with one or more portions of the variouse-books. The AR/VR contents may be rendered by an AR/VR headset 104 e.The AR/VR content may be associated with the portion of the e-book thatthe user is reading. For example, if the user is reading a book aboutthe battle, the AR/VR content may include map of the battlefield,photographs of the soldiers and officers, and/or newsreel footages ofthe war. In operation, when the user indicates, through a head gestureor by pressing a button, that the user seeks additional AR/VR content,the system 100 may render the AR/VR content the AR/VR headset 104 e.

A database 102 b may store user profiles of the users associated withthe user devices 104. A user profile may include data records containinga plurality of information of the corresponding user. For example, auser profile may include data records containing information on thee-books the user has read. The user profile may include data recordscontaining user preferences explicitly entered by the user and/oralgorithmically determined by the system 100. For instance, a user mayindicate his or her reading level, or the system 100 may determine theuser's reading level based on the user's e-books usage history such asthe reading level of the e-books the user frequently reads. The system100 may dynamically update the user profile based on the readingactivity or other inputs from the associated user.

The communication medium 103 may be any type of communication mediumsuch as a local area network (LAN), metropolitan area network (MAN),and/or a wide area network (WAN). For instance, the communication medium103 may be the internet. The communication medium 103 may be acombination of various wired and wireless links capable of carrying datapackets in between the server 101 and the user devices 104.

The user devices 104 devices may be any type of computing devices usedby one or more users of the system 100. Non limiting examples of userdevices may be a dedicated e-book reader 104 a, a tablet computer 104 b,a smart phone 104 c, a laptop computer 104 d, an augmented reality(AR)/virtual reality (VR) headset 104 e and a desktop computer 104 n.The dedicated e-book reader 104 a may run an e-book operating system andone or more e-book applications that may access the server 101 and thedatabase 102. Other devices may run their respective operating systemsand one or more e-book applications that may access the server 101 andthe database 102.

In an exemplary operation, the server 101 may receive a request for ane-book from a user device 104. The request may include an e-bookidentifier that the server 101 may use to query the database 102 a toretrieve a standard e-book file. The request may further include a useridentifier of the user associated with the user device 104. The servermay use the user identifier to query the database 102 b to the retrievea user profile of the user associated with the user identifier. The userprofile may contain data records indicating the reading level of theuser and/or the user's preferences. Based on the reading level and/oruser's preferences, the server 101 may retrieve one or more modifyingfiles containing database records having information on modifying thestandard e-book file. The modifying files may be in various formats,such as plaintext, a Portable Document Format (PDF), Hypertext MarkupLanguage (HTML), Extensible Markup Language (XML), Microsoft Word(MS-Word), International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 62448standard, Information Presentation Facility (IPF), Kindle File Format,Mobipocket, Rich Text Format (RTF), Open XML Paper Specification(OpenXPS), and/or any type of text displaying or processingstandard/format. The modifying files may be delta files containingdatabase records for modifying one or more portions of the standarde-book file. In some embodiments, the modifying files may includedatabase records containing rules for adjusting e-book content stored inthe e-book files based on reading levels. The server 101 may apply theone or more modifying files to the standard e-book file to generate amodified e-book. The server 101 may transmit the modified e-book to theuser device 104 such that the user device 104 may render the content ofthe modified e-book on the user interface of the user device 104. Theserver 101 may receive a request to change the reading level of themodified e-book being rendered on the user interface of the user device.Based on the request, the server 101 may query the database 102 a toretrieve a second set of one or more modifying files. The server 101 mayapply the information in the database records in the second set of oneor more modifying files to the standard e-book file or the modifiede-book file to generate a second modified e-book file. The server 101may transmit the second modified e-book file to the user device 104 suchthat the user device 104 may render the contents of the second modifiede-book file. Therefore, the user can dynamically customize the readinglevel of the e-book rendered on the user device 104.

FIG. 2 shows an exemplary e-book reader 200, according to an exemplaryembodiment. Various components of the e-book reader 200 may be enclosedin a housing 205. Exemplary components of the e-book reader 200 mayinclude a processor 201, a memory 202, a storage 203, a user interface203, and interactive buttons 206. A person ordinary skilled in the artunderstands that these components are merely exemplary and one or morecomponents may be substituted for other components, and one or morecomponents may be added to or subtracted from the components describedherein.

The processor 201 may be any kind of processor capable of executingsoftware modules to achieve the functionality of the e-book reader. Nonlimiting examples of the processor 201 may include a microprocessor oran application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). The processor 201 mayexecute an operating system stored as software modules in the storage203 and loaded onto the memory 202. Furthermore, the processor mayexecute software modules for one or more applications installed in thee-book reader 200. The memory 202 may be any type of memory which theprocessor 201 may use to load software programs and database recordsduring the runtime of the operating system of the e-book reader 200. Forexample, the memory 202 may be a random access memory (RAM) chip.

The storage 203 may be any type of storage containing an e-bookdatabase. Non-limiting examples of the storage are hard drives and flashdrives. The storage 203 may store various e-books that can be accessedby a user of the e-book reader 200. The storage 203 may store thee-books in plaintext format, a portable document format (PDF), and/orany type or text rendering or word processing standard that arecompatible with the e-book reader 200. In addition to the text of thee-books, the storage 203 may also store one or more multimedia filesrelated to the text of the e-books. The storage 203 may store readinglevel based e-book files such that the e-book reader 200 may render ane-book based on a user's reading level and preferences. In someembodiments, the storage 203 may store an e-book file containing a textat a standard reading level; and may store one or files containingmodifications to the e-book file text based on the reading level andpreferences of the users. For example, a standard text for an e-book maycontain a text containing highly technical information and the e-bookfile may contain the standard text containing the highly technicalinformation. The storage 203 may store, for example, two files for thee-book based on lower reading levels. The storage 203 may store a firstfile containing modifications to the standard text to support a user ata first reading level. For example, the first file may containreplacement for jargons and/or technical words. Furthermore, the firstfile may contain simple explanations of mathematical expressions in thestandard text. A second file may contain modifications to the first fileor the standard text. Using the second file, the e-book reader 200 maysupport a user at a lower second reading level compared to the firstreading level. In the embodiments where the second file containsmodifications to the first file, the second file may contain the textsimplifying information in the first file. The second file may include,for example, simpler words and shorter sentences compared to the firstfile. In some embodiments, the storage 203 may contain separate filesbased on the reading levels and preferences, as opposed to containing astandard text and one or more files containing modifications thereto. Inthese embodiments, the processor 201 may retrieve the appropriate filebased on a user's reading level and preferences.

The storage 203 may store a thesaurus file and the processor 201 may usethe thesaurus file for modifying a standard text e-book file. Forexample, the thesaurus file may have synonyms categorized according toreading levels. After the processor 201 identifies and/or determines areading level and preferences of a user, the processor 201 may accessthe thesaurus file and the standard e-book file and replace a pluralityof complex words in the standard e-book file with the synonyms at theappropriate reading level from the thesaurus file. One having ordinaryskill in the art understands that using a thesaurus file is merelyexemplary, and the e-book reader 200 may use any other algorithm totailor the e-book based on a user's reading level and preferences.

The storage 203 may store a user profile of the user associated with thee-book reader 200. A user profile may include data records containing aplurality of information of the user. For example, a user profile mayinclude data records containing information on the e-books the user hasread. The user profile may include data records containing userpreferences explicitly entered by the user and/or algorithmicallydetermined by the e-book reader 200. For instance, a user may indicatehis or her reading level, or the e-book reader 200 may determine theuser's reading level based on the user's e-books usage history such asthe reading level of the e-books the user frequently reads. The e-bookreader 200 may dynamically update the user profile based on the readingactivity or other inputs from the associated user.

The user interface 204 may be any kind of interface capable of renderinge-book text and associated multimedia. Non limiting examples of the userinterface include an LCD screen, an LED screen, and a plasma screen. Theuser interface 204 may allow a touchscreen access deploying touchscreentechnology known to one having ordinary skill in the art. The housing205 may be of any type of material such as plastic, metals, and alloys.The interactive buttons 206 may allow the user to navigate throughvarious pages rendered by the user interface. For example, theinteractive buttons 206 may allow the user to flip the pages of therendered e-book, increase or decrease the size of the text, andhighlight various portions of the text. Furthermore, the interactivebuttons 206 may allow the user to enter and/or modify the user's readinglevel and the preferences.

In operation, the processor 201 may receive a request for an e-book froma user through the user interface 204 and/or the interactive buttons206. The request may include an e-book identifier that the processor 201may use to query the storage 203 to retrieve a standard e-book file. Theprocessor may further query the storage 203 to retrieve a reading levelof the user and/or the user's preferences. Based on the reading leveland/or user's preferences, the server 201 may retrieve one or moremodifying files containing database records having information onmodifying the standard e-book file. The processor 201 may apply the oneor more modifying files to the standard e-book file to generate amodified e-book file. The processor 201 may transmit the content of themodified e-book file to the user interface 204 for rendering the contentto the user. The processor 201 may receive a request to change thereading level of the modified e-book being rendered on the userinterface 204. Based on the request, the processor 201 may query thestorage 203 to retrieve a second set of one or more modifying files. Theprocessor 201 may apply the information in the database records in thesecond set of one or more modifying files to the standard e-book file orthe modified e-book file to generate a second modified e-book file. Theprocessor 201 may transmit the contents of the second modified e-bookfile to the user interface 204 such that the user interface may renderthe received contents on the user interface 204.

Although FIG. 1 shows an exemplary client server system 100 and FIG. 2shows an exemplary e-book reader 200, one having ordinary skill in theart understands that a similar functionality can be achieved by anexemplary system which combines aspects of system 100 with the e-bookreader 200. In other words, one or more functions at the server 101 sideof the system 100 may be achieved at one or more client devices 104 andone or more functions of the e-book reader 200 may be achieved at one ormore servers communicating with the e-book reader 200.

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary method 300 of a customized rendering of ane-book on a user device, according to an exemplary embodiment. Althoughmultiple computer systems and multiple databases may implement thevarious steps of the method 300, the following description describes,for brevity, a computer system and a database implementing the method300. One having ordinary skill in the art understands that the computersystem and the database may be on the server side, on the client side,and/or a combination of the server side and the client side. One havingordinary skill in the art further understands the one or more steps ofthe method 300 may be omitted or substituted and other steps may beadded to the method 300 without deviating from the scope of thisdisclosure.

In a first step 301, the computer system may receive a request to renderan e-book from a user device. For example, a user may select an e-bookin a user interface provided by a dedicated e-book reader or in ane-book application running on a tablet computer. Alternatively, the usermay search for e-books in a search engine and select the e-book from thesearch results rendered in the user interface. One having ordinary skillin the art understands that the computer system may receive the requestto render the e-book from other communication channels such as textmessage or a command line interface (CLI). Regardless of thecommunication channel, the computer system may receive one or moreidentifiers and/or pointers identifying the e-book.

In a next step 302, the computer system may determine preferences andreading level of the user associated with the user device. In someembodiments, the user may select one or more preferences and/or thereading level while requesting an e-book to rendered on the user device.In other embodiments, the computer system may retrieve a user profilefrom the database to determine the preferences and the reading level ofthe user. In the embodiments wherein the user does not specify apreference or a reading level, the computer system may aggregateinformation from various user profiles to generate a standard set ofpreferences and a standard reading level.

In a next step 303, the computer system may retrieve a standard e-bookfile from the database based on the request. For example, the computersystem may query the database with the received identifier and/orpointer to retrieve the standard e-book file from the database. Thee-book file may be in any format such as a plaintext file or a PDF file.Furthermore, the e-book file may include multimedia components such asaudio, video, and/or animated text.

In a next step 304, the computer system may retrieve one or moremodifying files from the database based on the preferences and thereading level of the user associated with user device. For instance, thecomputer system may query the database using the preference informationand/or reading level information with the identifier of the standarde-book file to retrieve the one or more modifying files. In someembodiments, the modified files may contain software codes and datarecords to modify the content of the standard e-book file. For example,the one or more modifying files may contain replacement words,replacement sentences, and/or replacement paragraphs for one or moresections in the standard e-book file. For example, a modifying file mayinclude a thesaurus with words arranged according to reading levels.

In a next step 305, the computer system may generate a modified e-bookfrom the standard e-book file and the one or more modifying files. Forinstance, the computer system may use the replacement words, replacementsentences, and/or replacement paragraphs to replace one or more sectionsin the standard e-book file. In a thesaurus based modification, thecomputer system may identify the reading levels of a plurality of wordsin the standard e-book file, and identify the replacement words in thethesaurus file. The computer system may then use replace higher readinglevel words in the standard e-book file with lower reading level wordsfrom the thesaurus file.

In a next step 306, the computer system may render the modified e-bookon the user interface of the user device. In the embodiments wherein thecomputer system is a server computer, the computer system may use acommunication network to transmit the generated modified e-book file tothe user device. The user device may then receive the modified e-bookfile and render the contents of the e-book file on the user interface.In the embodiments wherein in the computer system is a client computer(for example, including the processor and memory of the user device),the computer system may transmit one or more instructions to theGraphical Processing Unit (GPU) to render the contents of the modifiede-book file on the user interface of the user device.

In some embodiments, the computer system may receive a request to changethe reading level of the e-book displayed on the user device. Therequest may include a new desired reading level. Based on the newdesired reading level, the computer system may retrieve a second set ofone or more modifying files from the database. The computer system mayapply modifying information in the database records of the second set ofone or more modifying files on the standard e-book file or the modifiede-book file to generate a second modified e-book file. The computersystem may transmit the second modified e-book file to the user deviceto render the contents of the second modified e-book file on the userinterface of the user device.

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary method 400 of an intelligent tracking of auser behavior, according to an exemplary embodiment. Although multiplecomputer systems and multiple databases may implement the various stepsof the method 400, the following description describes, for brevity, acomputer system and a database implementing the method 400. One havingordinary skill in the art understands that the computer system and thedatabase may be on the server side, on the client side, and/or acombination of the server side and the client side. One having ordinaryskill in the art further understands the one or more steps of the method400 may be omitted or substituted and other steps may be added to themethod 400 without deviating from the scope of this disclosure.

In a first step 401, the computer system may activate a camera in a userdevice. Non limiting examples of the user device may be a dedicatede-book reader, a smartphone, a tablet, a laptop computer, or a desktopcomputer. In some embodiments, the computer system may activate thecamera all the time when the user device is turned on or when the e-bookapplication is running. In other embodiments, the computer system mayactivate the camera in the user device in response to an event, forexample, the user turning to a page containing a particularly complexmatter. One having ordinary skill in the art understands that the cameramay include one or more camera modules. Non limiting examples of thecamera modules include optical camera and infrared cameras.

In a next step 402, the computer system may track the user's eyemovement using the camera. For example, the computer system mayimplement the pupil center corneal reflection (PCCR) technology to trackthe user's eye movement. One having ordinary skill in the artunderstands that the PCCR technology may include an infrared lightsource that direct an infrared beam towards the user's eyes, andthereafter use an infrared camera to capture the reflection of theaforementioned beam from the user's eyes. Based on measuring thecaptured reflection, the computer system may track the movement of theuser's eyes.

In some embodiments, the computer system track the movement of theuser's eyes using an optical camera and image processing. For example,an optical camera module in the user's device may continuously takepictures of the user's eyes and the computer system may track themovement of the eyes based on applying one or more movement trackingalgorithms to the stream of the pictures. One having ordinary skill inthe art understands that these technologies are merely exemplary, andthe computer system may use any number of eye tracking technologies.Regardless of the technology, the computer system may record the eyeposition (point of gaze) and the movement of the eyes in the twodimensional screen of the user device. For example, the computer systemmay store in the database, time stamped position of the eyes in a pageof text and/or images.

In a next step 403, the computer system may determine difficult portionsof rendered text based on tracking the user's eye movement. For example,the computer system may determine that the user had read a phrase, asentence, and/or a paragraph multiple times. As another example, thecomputer system may determine that the user has gazed at a word and/or aphrase for a long time. As yet another example, the computer system maydetermine that the user stopped reading in the middle of a sentence or amiddle of the paragraph or skipped reading the remainder of a sentenceand/or a paragraph.

In a next step 404, the computer system may tag difficult portions ofthe rendered text. For example, the computer system may store in thedatabase records of the rendered book, a flag or a tag that the specificportion of the book has been found difficult by various readers. Thetagging may be based upon collective activity of the various readers.For example, if the timing is above a threshold or the number of readersis above a threshold.

In a next step 405, the computer system may render the tagged portion ina distinct format. For example, in a teaching environment wherein theuser is a student reading an assigned text, the professor may open upthe assigned text using the professor's device. In the professor'sdevice, the computer system may highlight the portions that have beentagged difficult such that the professor may address the difficultportion in a subsequent class. In other settings, the computer systemmay highlight the difficult portions such that the subsequent readersare alerted about the difficulty of the portion. The subsequent readersmay then read the tagged sections more carefully or seek additional helpto understand the difficult portions. Furthermore, the tagged portionsallow one or more experts to provide additional material in associationwith the difficult portion to help the future reader understand thedifficult portions.

FIG. 5 shows an exemplary method 500 for rendering augmented reality(AR) and/or virtual reality (VR) content in associated with e-books,according to an exemplary embodiment. Although multiple computer systemsand multiple databases may implement the various steps of the method500, the following description describes, for brevity, a computersystem, an e-book database, and a user database implementing the method500. One having ordinary skill in the art understands that the computersystem and the databases may be on the server side, on the client side(for example, an e-book reader), and/or a combination of the server sideand the client side. One having ordinary skill in the art furtherunderstands the one or more steps of the method 500 may be omitted orsubstituted and other steps may be added to the method 500 withoutdeviating from the scope of this disclosure.

In a first step 501, the computer system may render an e-book. In someimplementations, the computer system may render the e-book on the screenof a user device such as a dedicated e-book reader, a smartphone, atablet computer, a laptop computer, or a desktop computer. In someimplementations, the computer system may render the e-book on thescreens of a virtual reality (VR) or an augmented reality (AR) headset.In some embodiments, the computer system may customize the renderede-book based on a user profile of a user associated with theaforementioned user devices. For example, the computer system may renderthe e-book with a customized level of difficulty based upon the userprofile. Furthermore, the computer system may render the e-book withcustomized text and/or customized graphics based upon the user profile.In some embodiments, the computer system may not render the e-book andthe user may be reading a physical paper based book.

In a next step 502, the computer system may track the head movement ofthe user. For example, the user may be wearing a VR or an AR headset.The computer system may activate one or more accelerometers andgyroscopes within the VR/AR headset to track the head-movement of theuser. The computer may receive orientation and movement information fromthe accelerometers and the gyroscopes to track the head movement of theuser. In addition to the tracking the head movement, the computer systemmay track the eye movement of the user using one or more cameras of oneor more user devices, such as smartphones and/or VR/AR headsets. Thetracking of the head movement (or additionally eye movement) may allowthe computer system to determine whether the user is reading the e-bookor whether the user is indicating that the user seeks additionalinformation on the portion of the e-book the user is reading. Forexample, a user may be reading an e-book placed on a desk with an AR/VRheadset on. A pass-through camera feature may allow the user to read ane-book while having the AR/VR headset on. In some implementations, theuser may be reading a physical paper book using the pass-through camerafeature. In other implementations, the user may be reading an e-bookrendered on the AR/VR headset itself. The computer system may allow theuser, through the AR/VR headset, to flip the virtual pages rendered onthe screen of the AR/VR headset. In some embodiments, the computersystem may continuously track the user's head movement or additionally,eye movement while the user reading a physical book or an e-book one wayor the other.

In a next step 503, the computer system may determine that the userseeks augmented reality/virtual reality content associated with aportion of the rendered e-book. For example, based upon tracking thehead movement (and optionally, eye movement), the computer may determinethat the user has taken eyes off the e-book the user is reading and haslooked up. Based upon one or more configuration setting, the computersystem may determine that this gesture indicates that the user isseeking additional information. In some implementations, the user mayprovide one or more inputs to indicate that the user needs the userneeds additional augmented reality (AR)/virtual reality (VR) contentabout the portion of the e-book that the user is reading. One havingordinary skill in the art understands that the aforementioned inputs tothe computer systems and merely exemplary and other forms of inputs areto be considered within the scope of this disclosure.

In a next step 504, the computer system may query a database to retrieveaugmented reality/virtual reality content for the portion associatedwith the portion of the rendered e-book. For example, computer systemmay query the e-book database which may contain additional augmentedreality information. For the query, the computer system may use anidentifier of the portion of the rendered e-book. For example, thecomputer system may use the page number, a paragraph number, a sectionnumber, and/or any other information to identify the portion of therendered e-book the user is reading. In the embodiments wherein the useris reading a paper-book or a an e-book on a separate device than theAR/VR headset, the computer system may use a camera of the AR/VR headsetto determine the portion of the book the user is reading.

In a next step 505, the computer system may render the retrievedaugmented reality/virtual reality material through the augmentedreality/virtual reality headset. The AR/VR reality material may includeitems such pictures, sketches, videos, and/or maps. For example, if auser is reading a portion of the e-book detailing a battle in a war, theAR/VR material may include map of the battlefield, photographs of thesoldiers and officers, and sketches of the weapons used. As an anotherexample, if the user is reading a book about electric motors, the AR/VRheadsets may display a three dimensional picture of the motor. Using theinteraction tools of the AR/VR headsets, the user may interact with thethree dimensional picture. For example, the user may rotate, zoom in,and zoom out of the three dimensional picture.

In some embodiments, the computer system may query for and retrieve andrender the additional AR/VR material (or content) on a payment basis.For example, the user may have to pay for the additional AR/VR materialand the computer system may communicate with a payment processing serverto process the required user payment prior to querying for, retrieving,and rendering the additional AR/VR material. To process the payment, thecomputer system may query by the computer, a payment database toretrieve payment information about the user. The computer may transmitthe payment information to a payment server. The computer may retrievethe additional AR/VR material in response to receiving a confirmationmessage from the payment server.

FIG. 6 shows an exemplary method 600 of integrating computer basedsocial interaction in with e-books, according to an exemplaryembodiment. Although multiple computer systems and multiple databasesmay implement the various steps of the method 600, the followingdescription describes, for brevity, a computer system and a databaseimplementing the method 600. One having ordinary skill in the artunderstands that the computer system and the database may be on theserver side, on the client side, and/or a combination of the server sideand the client side. One having ordinary skill in the art furtherunderstands the one or more steps of the method 600 may be omitted orsubstituted and other steps may be added to the method 600 withoutdeviating from the scope of this disclosure.

In a first step 601, the computer system may render an e-book. Thecomputer system may render the e-book on a user device such as asmartphone, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, ora dedicated e-book reader. Furthermore, the computer system maycustomize the e-book based on the user profile and preferences stored inthe database. For example, the computer system may highlight one or moreportions of the book.

In a next step 602, the computer system may receive an additionalinformation request for a portion of the rendered e-book from a user.For example, the user may make a chat request through an object renderedon the screen of the user device or by pressing a physical button in theuser device. In some embodiments, the chat request may be a request tochat with other readers who are reading the same portion at the sametime. Based on the request, the computer system may open chat windowsoverlaid on other user devices rendering the same portion of the e-bookbeing read by the user. Using the chat window, the user and other usersmay chat about the rendered portion of the book.

In some embodiments, the chat request may include a request to chat withan expert. In these embodiments, the computer system upon receipt of therequest, ping the devices of one or more expert user. When an expertuser responds, the computer system may facilitate a chat between theuser and the expert user. When an expert is not available, the computersystem may initialize a chatbot to chat with the user. In someembodiments, the chat request may include a request to chat with thechatbot itself. In some embodiments, the chat request may be a questionwith an indication from the user that the question does not have to beanswered immediately. In such embodiments, the computer system mayreceive the question and transmit the question to one or more experts.After an expert answers the question, the computer system may thentransmit the answer to the user. In some embodiments, the informationrequest may include the user indicating to the computer system to postthe question in a discussion board.

The computer system may execute one or more of the steps 603 a, 603 b,604 c, 603 d based on the type of the chat request. If the request fromthe user is to chat with other users who may be reading the same book,the computer system execute step 603 a to open a peer to peer chatwindow in the user's device. Furthermore, the computer system may alsoopen a peer to peer chat window on the other users' devices based uponthe respective configuration settings. If the chat request is toinitiate a chatbot, the computer system may execute step 603 b toinitiate a chatbot program. In some embodiments, the computer system mayinitiate a chatbot program if the user requests a peer to peer chat andthe computer system determines that there is no one available for achat. If the chat request is to open an expert chat window, the computersystem may execute step 603 c to open an expert chat window. Forexample, once the user inputs the request, the computer system may pingone or more experts to ascertain whether they are available for guidingthe user. Then, the computer system may open an expert chat window foran expert who has indicated that he or she is available for a chat withthe user. If the request is to post a question on a discussion board,the computer system may execute step 603 c to post the question input bythe user on a discussion board. One having ordinary skill in the artunderstands that these aforementioned chat requests are merely exemplaryand other forms of user requests should also be considered to be withinthe scope of this disclosure.

In a next step 604, the computer system may receive a response to therequest. For a peer to peer chat, the computer system may receive one ormore answers inputted by one or more other users in one or more peer topeer chat windows. For a chatbot, the computer system may receive one ormore answers generated by the chatbot. For an expert chat, the computersystem may receive one or more answers from one or more experts. For arequest posted on a discussion board, the computer system may receiveone or more answers posted on the discussion board. One having ordinaryskill in the art understands that the aforementioned modes of receivingone or more answers to the request are merely exemplary and other modesof receipt are to be considered within the scope of this disclosure.

In a next step 605, the computer system may transmit the receivedresponse to the user. In some embodiments, the computer system mayrender the response on the peer to peer chat window on the user'sdevice. In some embodiments, the computer system may transmit an e-mailor text message with the response. In other embodiments, the computersystem may transmit an indication through e-mail, text message, orsimilar modes of communication that a response has been posted and thatthe user has to open the e-book to view the response. One havingordinary skill in the art understands that these modes of transmissionsare merely exemplary and other modes of transmission are to beconsidered within the scope of this disclosure.

Therefore, by implementing this exemplary method 600, the computersystem may leverage social communication aspects to aid the userunderstand the e-book material. For example, if the user is reading aparticularly complex text, the computer system provides multiple optionsto the users to seek help from fellow peers, experts, or an automatedartificial intelligence (AI) based chatbot program. Furthermore, in aclassroom setting, the computer system may automatically tag a portionof an assigned reading based upon the number of chat requests made bythe student users. The computer system may then indicate to professorwho has assigned the reading that the tagged portions were particularlydifficult for the students, and automatically queue the material for theprofessor to address in a subsequent lecture.

FIG. 7 shows an exemplary method 700 of providing rewards to a user,according to an exemplary embodiment. Although multiple computer systemsand multiple databases may implement the various steps of the method700, the following description describes, for brevity, a computersystem, an e-book database, and a user database implementing the method700. One having ordinary skill in the art understands that the computersystem and the databases may be on the server side, on the client side(for example an e-book reader), and/or a combination of the server sideand the client side. One having ordinary skill in the art furtherunderstands the one or more steps of the method 700 may be omitted orsubstituted and other steps may be added to the method 700 withoutdeviating from the scope of this disclosure.

In a first step 701, the computer may render an e-book in associationwith one or more questions. The computer may render a customized e-bookbased on the user profile. The rendered e-book may include, for example,a section of a book overlaid with a question posed by one or more users.As an alternate, the rendered e-book may include a chat window withchats from various users being updated in real time. As anotheralternate, the rendered e-book may include one or more questions at adiscussion forum. In some embodiments, the computer may render theadditional contents such as the chats being updated in real time, aquestion posed, or a forum discussion based on a request from the user.For instance, the computer may render the text and/or pictures of thebook, and the user may use a menu item on the screen or a physicalbutton on the user device instructing the computer to render theadditional contents of the e-book. In some implementations, the userdevice may be associated with a user, and the computer may render theadditional content overlaid on the e-book based on the user profilestored in the database. For example, the user may indicate that he orshe is an expert user in the user profile, and based on such indication,the computer system may automatically load the additional content on theoverlaid on the e-book.

In a next step 702, the computer may receive an input from the user inresponse to the one or more questions. The input may be associated withone or more additional contents overlaid on the e-book. The input maybe, for example, an answer to the question posed in a discussion forumor a response to a question in the chat room. In some implementations,the input may be an audio or the video of the user providing answers toone or more questions posed in the online forum and chat rooms. Forexample, the user may instruct the user device to activate the cameraand/or microphone to take videos and/or an audio. Then the user mayinstruct the computer to upload the video and/or audio in association tothe respective question posed.

In a next step 703, the computer may determine points to be awarded tothe user based on the input. In some embodiments, the computer maydetermine the points based upon other users' response to the answersprovided the user. For example, the computer may post the responses bythe user with an option for other users to indicate whether the responsewas helpful. Alternatively, the computer may allow the other users torank the response, either qualitatively or numerically or both. Forexample, the computer may request the other users to input a number on aten-point scale. As another example, the computer may request the otherusers to select from options such as extremely helpful, very helpful,helpful, somewhat helpful, and not helpful. The computer may receive theranking inputs from the community of users and determine the points tobe awarded to the user. For example, the computer may determine thathigher value points may be awarded to the user whose responses receivehigher rankings. Likewise, the computer may determine that lower valuepoints to be awarded to the user whose response receive lower rankings.In some implementations, the computer may determine the points toawarded to the user agnostic to the inputs receives from other users.For example, the computer system may determine the points to be awardedbased upon the number of responses from the user irrespective of how theresponses were ranked by the community of users. In a next step 704, thecomputer system may update the user database with the reward with thepoints awarded. The computer may, for example, update a rewards accountassociated with the user's profile with the points awarded to the user.

In a next step 705, the computer system may assign the expertise levelof the user. In some embodiments, the computer system may assign theexpertise level based on the award points. For example, the highernumber of award points may be correlated with the better and credibleanswers and lower number of award points may be correlated with lowerquality and less credible answers. The computer system may thereforeimplement a numerical threshold to delineate the expertise of the user.In some embodiments, the computer system may assign the expertise levelbased on the aggregated rankings of the answers received from otherusers. The expertise levels assigned by the computer systems may includelabels such as “expert” or “beginner.”

In a next step 706, the computer system may render the expertise levelto other users. For example, next to the name of the expert, thecomputer may have a color coded message, or a badge identifying theexpert and the level of the expert. For example, a chat window, thecomputer system may display the name or identifier of a user with abadge or an indication of the expertise level of the user. Similarly, indiscussion forums, the computer system may render the name or anidentifier of the expert with a badge or an indication of the expertiselevel of user in combination with the answer posted by the user.

One having ordinary skill in the art understands that badges or anyother type of indication of the expertise level of the user may providea signal of credibility to other users. Furthermore, the rewardmechanism also may provide an incentive for user to provide answers tovarious questions posed by other users such that reading can be acollaborative environment. Or in other words, the computer system mayprovide a virtual book club wherein users can discuss about one or moree-books and ask questions to one or more experts.

FIG. 8 shows an exemplary method 800 of rendering a customized e-book toa user, according to an exemplary embodiment. Although multiple computersystems and multiple databases may implement the various steps of themethod 800, the following description describes, for brevity, a computersystem, an e-book database, and a user database implementing the method800. One having ordinary skill in the art understands that the computersystem and the database may be on the server side, on the client side(for example an e-book reader), and/or a combination of the server sideand the client side. One having ordinary skill in the art furtherunderstands the one or more steps of the method 800 may be omitted orsubstituted and other steps may be added to the method 800 withoutdeviating from the scope of this disclosure.

In a first step 801, the computer system may receive a request to renderan e-book. For example, a user may transmit a request via a user devicesuch as a dedicated e-book reader, a smartphone, a tablet computer, alaptop computer, and a desktop computer. On the user device, the usermay press a physical button to transmit the request. In addition or inthe alternate, the user may select one or more options presented on theuser interface of the user device to transmit the request. For example,the computer system may render an icon of an e-book on the user device,and the user may select the icon to transmit a request to the computersystem to render the e-book associated with the selected icon. In someembodiments, the user may use the voice assistance feature of the userdevice to transmit the request to render the e-book. One having ordinaryskill in the art understands that the aforementioned request mechanismsare merely exemplary, and other forms of requesting an e-book to berendered are to be considered within the scope of this disclosure.

In a next step 802, the computer system may retrieve the e-book contentsfrom the e-book database. For example, the computer system may retrieveone or more customizable e-book files from the e-book database. Thecontents of the customizable e-book files may include, for example,text, pictures, sketches, photographs, or moving pictures to be renderedwith the text of the e-book. The e-book database be stored on a servercomputer or the user device or a combination of both. The request fromthe user may include an e-book identifier and the computer system mayuse the e-book identifier to retrieve the e-book contents associatedwith the e-book identifier.

In a next step 803, the computer may query a user profile associatedwith the user to retrieve one or more pieces of information associatedwith the user. The user profile may be stored in the user database andmay contain one or more data records containing a plurality of pieces ofinformation of the user. The plurality of pieces of information of theuser may include, the user's name, the user's one or more social mediahandles, the user's profession, the user's photograph or likeness, theuser's hobbies, the user's friends and relatives, and the user'sfavorite food. The computer system may source the aforementioned andother information of the user from sources such as the user's socialmedia, the user's blog site, and/or any other type of online activitiesfrom the user. The computer system may source the information using therespective application programing interface (API) of the respectiveonline service providers such as social media platforms and the bloghosting sites. The user profile may include user authenticationinformation, for example username and password, and the computer systemmay use such authentication information to query one or more socialmedia platforms and/or blogging platforms to retrieve the informationabout the user. After the queried information is received from theonline service providers, the computer system may execute one or moreanalytics engines to aggregate the pieces of information received fromone or more online service providers. In some implementations, thecomputer system may receive one or more pieces from the user himself orherself. Furthermore, the computer system may determine a close circleof friends and family of the user, and use the information toautopopulate the name of close family and friends of the main characterin the rendered e-book.

In a next step 804, the computer may modify the retrieved e-book contentusing the retrieved information associated with the user. For example,the computer system may execute a modification algorithm on the one ormore customizable e-book files and the aggregated pieces of informationgenerated by the analytics engine to generate a customized e-book. Forinstance, if the e-book is a fiction, the computer system may replacethe name of the main character with the name of the user. Furthermore,the computer system may replace the attributes of the main characterwith the attributes of the user. For example, if the user has a favoritefood or a favorite drink, the computer system may modify the e-bookcontent such that the favorite food and/or the favorite drink of themain character is respective the favorite food and the favorite drink ofthe user. In some implementations, wherein the e-book may includepictures or likeness of the characters, the computer system may modifythe e-book content such that the main character looks like the user. Inthe embodiments wherein the user submits a photograph, the computersystem may execute one or more photograph processing algorithms togenerate a sketch of the user from the submitted photo and use thegenerated sketch as the likeness of the main character in the e-book. Insome embodiments, the computer may modify the e-book content using theinformation of the user's friend and family. For example, the computersystem may use the user's children's name as the name of the maincharacter's children in the e-book. Furthermore, the computer system mayuse the photographs of the user's children to generate the likeness ofthe children of the main character in the e-book. A person havingordinary skill in the art understands that the pieces of information andmodifications discussed herein are merely exemplary and other pieces ofinformation and modifications should be considered within the scope ofthis disclosure.

In a next step 805, the computer system may render the modified e-bookon user device. The modified e-book therefore will contain informationabout the user embedded within the narrative presented by the e-book.The modified e-book may therefore be particularly helpful for reading tochildren where the children may feel that they are a part of the story.Such e-books may be equally interesting to adults as well.

FIG. 9 shows an exemplary method 900 of aggregating e-book readers'suggestions for future movies based on the rendered e-books, accordingto an exemplary embodiment. Although multiple computer systems andmultiple databases may implement the various steps of the method 900,the following description describes, for brevity, a computer system anda database implementing the method 900. One having ordinary skill in theart understands that the computer system and the database may be on theserver side, on the client side, and/or a combination of the server sideand the client side. One having ordinary skill in the art furtherunderstands the one or more steps of the method 900 may be omitted orsubstituted and other steps may be added to the method 900 withoutdeviating from the scope of this disclosure.

In a first step 901, the computer system may render an e-book on a userdevice. The user device may include, for example, a dedicated e-bookreader, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, and/or a desktop computer.As described herein, the computer system may be a server computer or theuser device or a combination of the server computer and the user device.In some embodiments, the rendered e-book may be a customized e-bookbased on the user associated with the user device. For example, thecomputer system may receive a request to render the e-book through theuser device and based on the identification of the user device mayretrieve the user profile of the user. Based on the user profile, thecomputer system may render a customized e-book such as e-book with thereading level associated with the user. As another example, the computersystem may highlight portions of the rendered e-book based on the userprofile. Furthermore, the customer system may render customized graphicelements, pictures and sketches for example, based on one or more datarecords stored in the user profile.

In a next step 902, the computer system may receive a request toactivate a movie suggestion mode. The computer system may receive therequest from the user device. For example, the user device may include aphysical button that the user can press to make the request. In additionor in the alternate, the computer system may render a selectable object(e.g. an icon or a link) in the user interface of the user that the usermay select to transmit the request. In some embodiments, the user devicemay capture a voice request from the user and the computer system mayprocess the voice request to determine if the voice request includes therequest to activate the movie suggestion mode. One having ordinary skillin the art understands that these request mechanisms and merelyexemplary and other forms of request should be considered to be withinthe scope of this disclosure. The movie suggestion mode may allow theuser to input one or more suggestions by the user for a future moviebased on the rendered e-book or a portion thereof.

In some embodiments, the request to activate a movie suggestion mode maybe associated with a specific portion of the rendered e-book. Forexample, the user may select a portion of the e-book rendered in theuser device and provide an input to the user device (for example aright-click) to open options for the selected portion. Among theoptions, the computer system may render an option such as “enter a moviesuggestion for this portion.” The user may select the option and thecomputer system may active a move suggestion mode associated at leastwith the user selected portion.

In a next step 903, the computer system may activate a movie suggestionmode for the user to input one or more movie suggestions. The movesuggestion mode may include, for example, one or more windows overlaidon the rendered e-book. The one or more windows may allow the user toenter inputs for movie suggestion such a typing a text, recording anaudio or a video, and/or uploading pictures/text. In someimplementations, the movie suggestion mode may include audio cues forthe user to input the movie suggestions. The move suggestions mayinclude for example, a recommended street for shooting a scene in thee-book, a potential actor for a character in the book, and/or arecommended town for shooting the move based on the book. One havingordinary skill in the art realizes that these suggestions are merelyexemplary and other unlisted suggestions should be considered to bewithin the scope of this disclosure.

In a next step 904, the computer system may receive and store the one ormore movie suggestions. In some embodiments, the computer system mayinitially store the one or more movie suggestions in a local database inthe user device and transmit the one or more movie suggestions to theserver computer at a later time. In other embodiments, the computersystem may transmit the one or more movie suggestions directly to theserver computer without storing in a local database. The server computermay then store the one or more movie suggestion in a database associatedwith the server computer.

In a next step 905, the computer system may aggregate movie suggestionsfrom multiple users. For example, the server computer may maintain aseparate database of movie suggestions where the computer system storesthe movie suggestions from multiple users. The computer system mayexecute one or more analytics engines on the data records in thedatabase of movie suggestions. For database records containing textsuggestions from the users, the computer system may execute a textanalytics engine to ascertain common themes or suggestions. For databaserecords containing audio and/or video suggestions, the computer systemmay execute an audio/video analytics engine to ascertain common words,phrases, and/or sentences. One having ordinary skill in the artappreciates that these techniques of analytics and aggregation aremerely exemplary and other types of analytics engines and techniquesshould be considered within the scope of the disclosure.

In a next step 906, the computer system may generate a report formoviemakers based on the aggregated movie suggestions. For example, oneor more analytics engine during aggregation may generate a list ofsuggested shooting locations for a particular scene in an e-book. Thereport may include the list with items in the linked ranked according totheir popularity. As another example, the report may include a rankedlist of suggested actors for a particular role. The report may include,for example, text, info-graphics, and charts. Based on the report,moviemakers may gaze as to how the readers want the e-book to bevisualized in the movies.

In addition to providing suggestions to future moviemakers, one or moreusers may provide feedback to an author of the rendered e-book using theexemplary method 900. For example, an user may tag a portion that he orshe likes and tag another portion that he or she does not like. Asanother example, the user may indicate alternate plots or ideas for asequel. Furthermore, the user may indicate one or more stories in thefan fiction market associated with the rendered e-book. The computersystem may therefore facilitate an author to dynamically write a bookbased on reader feedback. For example, an author can publish a chapterusing the computer system, and dynamically write subsequent chaptersbased on the user feedback.

FIG. 10 shows a method 1000 of a customized displaying of an e-book on auser device, according to an embodiment. Although multiple computersystems and multiple databases may implement the various steps of themethod 1000, the following description describes, for brevity, acomputer system and a database implementing the method 1000. One havingordinary skill in the art understands that the computer system and thedatabase may be on the server side, on the client side, and/or acombination of the server side and the client side. One having ordinaryskill in the art further understands the one or more steps of the method1000 may be omitted or substituted and other steps may be added to themethod 1000 without deviating from the scope of this disclosure.

In a first step 1001, the computer system may receive a request todisplay an e-book from a user device. For example, a user may select ane-book in a user interface provided by a dedicated e-book reader or inan e-book application running on a tablet computer. Alternatively, theuser may search for e-books in a search engine and select the e-bookfrom the search results displayed in the user interface. One havingordinary skill in the art understands that the computer system mayreceive the request to display the e-book from other communicationchannels such as text message or a command line interface (CLI).Regardless of the communication channel, the computer system may receiveone or more identifiers and/or pointers identifying the e-book.

In a next step 1002, the computer system may determine preferences andreading level of the user associated with the user device. In someembodiments, the user may select one or more preferences and/or thereading level while requesting an e-book to displayed on the userdevice. In other embodiments, the computer system may retrieve a userprofile from the database to determine the preferences and the readinglevel of the user. In the embodiments wherein the user does not specifya preference or a reading level, the computer system may aggregateinformation from various user profiles to generate a standard set ofpreferences and a standard reading level.

In a next step 1003, the computer system may retrieve a standard e-bookfile from the database based on the request. For example, the computersystem may query the database with the received identifier and/orpointer to retrieve the standard e-book file from the database. Thee-book file may be in any format such as a plaintext file or a PDF file.Furthermore, the e-book file may include multimedia components such asaudio, video, and/or animated text.

In a next step 1004, the computer system may retrieve one or moremodifying files from the database based on the preferences and thereading level of the user associated with user device. For instance, thecomputer system may query the database using the preference informationand/or reading level information with the identifier of the standarde-book file to retrieve the one or more modifying files. In someembodiments, the modified files may contain software codes and datarecords to modify the content of the standard e-book file. For example,the one or more modifying files may contain replacement words,replacement sentences, and/or replacement paragraphs for one or moresections in the standard e-book file. For example, a modifying file mayinclude a thesaurus with words arranged according to reading levels.

In a next step 1005, the computer system may generate a modified e-bookfrom the standard e-book file and the one or more modifying files. Forinstance, the computer system may use the replacement words, replacementsentences, and/or replacement paragraphs to replace one or more sectionsin the standard e-book file. In a thesaurus based modification, thecomputer system may identify the reading levels of a plurality of wordsin the standard e-book file, and identify the replacement words in thethesaurus file. The computer system may then use replace higher readinglevel words in the standard e-book file with lower reading level wordsfrom the thesaurus file.

In a next step 1006, the computer system may display the modified e-bookon the user interface of the user device. In the embodiments wherein thecomputer system is a server computer, the computer system may use acommunication network to transmit the generated modified e-book file tothe user device. The user device may then receive the modified e-bookfile and display the contents of the e-book file on the user interface.In the embodiments wherein in the computer system is a client computer(for example, including the processor and memory of the user device),the computer system may transmit one or more instructions to theGraphical Processing Unit (GPU) to display the contents of the modifiede-book file on the user interface of the user device.

In some embodiments, the computer system may receive a request to changethe reading level of the e-book displayed on the user device. Therequest may include a new desired reading level. Based on the newdesired reading level, the computer system may retrieve a second set ofone or more modifying files from the database. The computer system mayapply modifying information in the database records of the second set ofone or more modifying files on the standard e-book file or the modifiede-book file to generate a second modified e-book file. The computersystem may transmit the second modified e-book file to the user deviceto display the contents of the second modified e-book file on the userinterface of the user device.

The foregoing method descriptions and the process flow diagrams areprovided merely as illustrative examples and are not intended to requireor imply that the steps of the various embodiments must be performed inthe order presented. The steps in the foregoing embodiments may beperformed in any order. Words such as “then,” “next,” etc. are notintended to limit the order of the steps; these words are simply used toguide the reader through the description of the methods. Althoughprocess flow diagrams may describe the operations as a sequentialprocess, many of the operations can be performed in parallel orconcurrently. In addition, the order of the operations may bere-arranged. A process may correspond to a method, a function, aprocedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, and the like. When a processcorresponds to a function, the process termination may correspond to areturn of the function to a calling function or a main function.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, andalgorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosedherein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, orcombinations of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability ofhardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules,circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms oftheir functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented ashardware or software depends upon the particular application and designconstraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans mayimplement the described functionality in varying ways for eachparticular application, but such implementation decisions should not beinterpreted as causing a departure from the scope of this disclosure orthe claims.

Embodiments implemented in computer software may be implemented insoftware, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware descriptionlanguages, or any combination thereof. A code segment ormachine-executable instructions may represent a procedure, a function, asubprogram, a program, a routine, a subroutine, a module, a softwarepackage, a class, or any combination of instructions, data structures,or program statements. A code segment may be coupled to another codesegment or a hardware circuit by passing and/or receiving information,data, arguments, parameters, or memory contents. Information, arguments,parameters, data, etc. may be passed, forwarded, or transmitted via anysuitable means including memory sharing, message passing, token passing,network transmission, etc.

The actual software code or specialized control hardware used toimplement these systems and methods is not limiting of the claimedfeatures or this disclosure. Thus, the operation and behavior of thesystems and methods were described without reference to the specificsoftware code being understood that software and control hardware can bedesigned to implement the systems and methods based on the descriptionherein.

When implemented in software, the functions may be stored as one or moreinstructions or code on a non-transitory computer-readable orprocessor-readable storage medium. The steps of a method or algorithmdisclosed herein may be embodied in a processor-executable softwaremodule, which may reside on a computer-readable or processor-readablestorage medium. A non-transitory computer-readable or processor-readablemedia includes both computer storage media and tangible storage mediathat facilitate transfer of a computer program from one place toanother. A non-transitory processor-readable storage media may be anyavailable media that may be accessed by a computer. By way of example,and not limitation, such non-transitory processor-readable media maycomprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage,magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any othertangible storage medium that may be used to store desired program codein the form of instructions or data structures and that may be accessedby a computer or processor. Disk and disc, as used herein, includecompact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc(DVD), floppy disk, and Blu-ray disc where disks usually reproduce datamagnetically, while discs reproduce data optically with lasers.Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope ofcomputer-readable media. Additionally, the operations of a method oralgorithm may reside as one or any combination or set of codes and/orinstructions on a non-transitory processor-readable medium and/orcomputer-readable medium, which may be incorporated into a computerprogram product.

The preceding description of the disclosed embodiments is provided toenable any person skilled in the art to make or use the embodimentsdescribed herein and variations thereof. Various modifications to theseembodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, andthe generic principles defined herein may be applied to otherembodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the subjectmatter disclosed herein. Thus, the present disclosure is not intended tobe limited to the embodiments shown herein but is to be accorded thewidest scope consistent with the following claims and the principles andnovel features disclosed herein.

While various aspects and embodiments have been disclosed, other aspectsand embodiments are contemplated. The various aspects and embodimentsdisclosed are for purposes of illustration and are not intended to belimiting, with the true scope and spirit being indicated by thefollowing claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer implemented method comprising:querying, by a processor, responsive to a request to render electroniccontent on a browser application executing on a user device, a profiledatabase to retrieve a user profile associated with the user device;determining, by the processor, a reading level of a user of the userdevice based on a historical record of previous electronic contentaccessed by the user; retrieving, by the processor, the electroniccontent configured for display on the browser application executing onthe user device associated with the user profile; retrieving, by theprocessor, a first set of one or more modifying files based on thereading level or preferences of the user, wherein the first set of oneor more modifying files include database records containing rules foradjusting the electronic content based on the reading level orpreferences; retrieving, by the processor, from a social media platform,information associated with the user stored in an account of the user atthe social media platform; retrieving, by the processor from a databaseusing the first set of one or more modifying files, modified electroniccontent associated with at least a portion of the electronic content;and dynamically replacing, by the processor, the electronic content withthe modified electronic content and with at least a portion of theinformation associated with the user retrieved from the account at thesocial media platform.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the modifiedelectronic content corresponds to a synonym of the portion of theelectronic content categorized according to the reading level orpreferences.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the user device isselected from the group consisting of: a dedicated e-book reader, atablet computer, a smartphone, a laptop computer, and a desktopcomputer.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein a format of the electroniccontent is in a format selected from the group consisting of: plaintext,a Portable Document Format (PDF), Hypertext Markup Language (HTML),Extensible Markup Language (XML), Microsoft Word (MS-Word),International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 62448 standard,Information Presentation Facility (IPF), Kindle File Format, Mobipocket,Rich Text Format (RTF), and Open XML Paper Specification (OpenXPS). 5.The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first set of one ormore modifying files is in a format selected from the group consistingof: plaintext, a Portable Document Format (PDF), Hypertext MarkupLanguage (HTML), Extensible Markup Language (XML), Microsoft Word(MS-Word), International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 62448standard, Information Presentation Facility (IPF), Kindle File Format,Mobipocket, Rich Text Format (RTF), and Open XML Paper Specification(OpenXPS).
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the database is a thesaurusor a dictionary file.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the processorreceives the electronic content from a webserver and wherein thedynamically replacing the electronic content corresponds to causing thewebserver to replace the electronic content with the modified electroniccontent.
 8. A computer readable non-transitory medium containing one ormore computer instructions, which when executed by a processor cause theprocessor to: query, responsive to a request to render electroniccontent on a browser application executing on a user device, a profiledatabase to retrieve a user profile associated with the user device;determine a reading level of a user of the user device based on ahistorical record of previous electronic content accessed by the user;retrieve the electronic content configured for display on the browserapplication executing on the user device associated with the userprofile; retrieve a first set of one or more modifying files based onthe reading level or preferences of the user, wherein the first set ofone or more modifying files include database records containing rulesfor adjusting the electronic content based on the reading level orpreferences; retrieve, from a social media platform, informationassociated with the user stored in an account of the user at the socialmedia platform; retrieve, from a database using the first set of one ormore modifying files, modified electronic content associated with atleast a portion of the electronic content; and dynamically replace theelectronic content with the modified electronic content and with atleast a portion of the information associated with the user retrievedfrom the account at the social media platform.
 9. The computer readablenon-transitory medium of claim 8, wherein the modified electroniccontent corresponds to a synonym of the portion of the electroniccontent categorized according to the reading level or preferences. 10.The computer readable non-transitory medium of claim 8, wherein the userdevice is selected from the group consisting of: a dedicated e-bookreader, a tablet computer, a smartphone, a laptop computer, and adesktop computer.
 11. The computer readable non-transitory medium ofclaim 8, wherein a format of the electronic content is in a formatselected from the group consisting of: plaintext, a Portable DocumentFormat (PDF), Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Extensible MarkupLanguage (XML), Microsoft Word (MS-Word), International ElectrotechnicalCommission (IEC) 62448 standard, Information Presentation Facility(IPF), Kindle File Format, Mobipocket, Rich Text Format (RTF), and OpenXML Paper Specification (OpenXPS).
 12. The computer readablenon-transitory medium of claim 8, wherein at least one of the first setof one or more modifying files is in a format selected from the groupconsisting of: plaintext, a Portable Document Format (PDF), HypertextMarkup Language (HTML), Extensible Markup Language (XML), Microsoft Word(MS-Word), International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 62448standard, Information Presentation Facility (IPF), Kindle File Format,Mobipocket, Rich Text Format (RTF), and Open XML Paper Specification(OpenXPS).
 13. The computer readable non-transitory medium of claim 8,wherein the database is a thesaurus or a dictionary file.
 14. Thecomputer readable non-transitory medium of claim 8, wherein theprocessor receives the electronic content from a webserver and whereinthe dynamically replacing the electronic content corresponds to causingthe webserver to replace the electronic content with the modifiedelectronic content.
 15. A system comprising: a webserver configured topopulate a browser application executing on a user device; and aprocessor in communication with the webserver, the processor configuredto: query, responsive to a request to render electronic content on thebrowser application executing on the user device, a profile database toretrieve a user profile associated with the user device; determine areading level of a user of the user device based on a historical recordof previous electronic content accessed by the user; retrieve theelectronic content configured for display on the browser applicationexecuting on the user device associated with the user profile; retrievea first set of one or more modifying files based on the reading level orpreferences of the user, wherein the first set of one or more modifyingfiles include database records containing rules for adjusting theelectronic content based on the reading level or preferences; retrieve,from a social media platform, information associated with the userstored in an account of the user at the social media platform; retrieve,from a database using the first set of one or more modifying files,modified electronic content associated with at least a portion of theelectronic content; and dynamically replace the electronic content withthe modified electronic content and with at least a portion of theinformation associated with the user retrieved from the account at thesocial media platform.
 16. The system of claim 15, wherein the modifiedelectronic content corresponds to a synonym of the portion of theelectronic content categorized according to the reading level orpreferences.
 17. The system of claim 15, wherein the user device isselected from the group consisting of: a dedicated e-book reader, atablet computer, a smartphone, a laptop computer, and a desktopcomputer.
 18. The system of claim 15, wherein the electronic content isof: plaintext, a Portable Document Format (PDF), Hypertext MarkupLanguage (HTML), Extensible Markup Language (XML), Microsoft Word(MS-Word), International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 62448standard, Information Presentation Facility (IPF), Kindle File Format,Mobipocket, Rich Text Format (RTF), and Open XML Paper Specification(OpenXPS).
 19. The system of claim 15, wherein at least one of the firstset of one or more modifying files is in a format selected from thegroup consisting of: plaintext, a Portable Document Format (PDF),Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Extensible Markup Language (XML),Microsoft Word (MS-Word), International Electrotechnical Commission(IEC) 62448 standard, Information Presentation Facility (IPF), KindleFile Format, Mobipocket, Rich Text Format (RTF), and Open XML PaperSpecification (OpenXPS).
 20. The system of claim 15, wherein thedatabase is a thesaurus or a dictionary file.